A MARYLAND PILGRIMAGE
Photograph by Clifton Adams
AN OX TEAM AT A COUNTRY STORE NEAR ANNAPOLIS
The records show that at first both
Catholics and Protestants used the com
munity church; that a proclamation was
issued in 1638 for the suppression of "dis
putes tending to the opening of a faction
in religion."
And an act of the Assembly
declared that "no person professing to
believe in Jesus Christ shall be troubled,
molested, or discountenanced, for, or in
respect of, his or her religion."
Thus Protestant and Catholic dwelt to
gether in harmony, neither attempting to
interfere with the rights of worship of the
other, and "religious liberty obtained a
home, its only home in the wide world, at
the humble village which bore the name
of St. Marys" (George Bancroft).
MANY DENOMINATIONS WERE NURTURED
IN LIBERAL MARYLAND
Enjoying an enviable reputation for tol
eration, Maryland, though founded by
Lord Baltimore primarily as an asylum
for Roman Catholics, soon became the
sanctuary of Puritans and Quakers, and
of Protestants of many creeds, who, flee-
ing persecution in France and the German
States, sought happiness within her bor
ders and found it.
A number of America's important reli
gious denominations-notably the Meth
odists, Presbyterians, the German Re
formed Church, the United Brethren, and
the Lutherans-either were formally or
ganized in Maryland or gained early
American footholds there.
And it was Maryland which laid early
and continued emphasis on the complete
separation of the State and the Church
until that principle became a cornerstone
of national policy.
At St. Marys, too, that ideal of de
mocracy which places the origination of
laws in the hands of the people and the
power of veto in the hands of the execu
tive, the very essence of political freedom,
was early established.
THE HOME OF AMERICA'S FIRST WOMAN
SUFFRAGIST
And near by is a tract of land known
as the Sisters' Freehold, where lived
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